Philippe Chatrier, Suzanne Lenglen... These personalities who gave their name to the Roland-Garros courts

Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: AFP 06:00, May 29, 2023

The temple of French tennis will finally be able to vibrate again. The 122nd edition of the legendary Roland-Garros tournament began this Sunday on the clay of the Porte d'Auteuil. Orphaned by Rafael Nadal, true master of the place with 14 titles gleaned on the Parisian ochre, this 2023 vintage promises an open table and suspense at all levels. Enough to delight the lucky ones who will take place on the Philippe-Chatrier, Suzanne-Lenglen or Simonne-Matthieu courts which will host the best matches of the fortnight. The opportunity to look at these three personalities who have marked their borrow the tricolor tennis.

Philippe Chatrier, the visionary

The former Centre Court of Roland-Garros bears, since 2001, the name of Philippe Chatrier, former journalist became a major player in the small yellow ball in France. An honest tennis player - he won a France championship title in 1945 - he created the magazine Tennis de France in 1953 in which he expressed his sometimes strong opinions on the evolution of his favorite sport. It is notably one of the precursors of the open era, in other words the opening of all Grand Slam tournaments to all professional or amateur days.

Credit: AFP

His name ended up resonating in the tennis world and Philippe Chatrier donned the tracksuit of the Davis Cup France team at the end of the 1960s, of which he became the captain between 1969 and 1972. Two decades followed (1972-1993) at the head of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) where he worked for the development and expansion of the Roland-Garros complex. With the construction of the Suzanne Lenglen court and the broadcasting of the tournament on television, the tournament acquired a real stature on a global scale.

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Finally, it is to Philippe Chatrier, also boss of the international tennis federation, that we owe the return of this sport to the program of the Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988, ending 64 years of interruption. He died in Dinard, Brittany, on June 23, 2000, leaving behind a legacy that French and international tennis could not deny him.

Suzanne Lenglen, the "divine"

Throughout its history, women's tennis has seen a multitude of icons, from Margaret Smith-Court to Steffi Graff, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams. But the pioneer was Suzanne Lenglen. The first professional player in the history of her sport, the "divine" won four France championship titles as well as the first two editions of Roland-Garros in the 1920s.

Credit: AUSTRIAN ARCHIVES (S) / IMAGNO / APA-PICTUREDESK VIA AFP

Four times winner at Wimbledon, Olympic champion at the Antwerp Games in 1920, few opponents resisted her on the court. And outside of it, her fiery and liberated personality revolutionized women's tennis. From a clothing point of view first, since it is she who introduces the short skirt on the tennis courts, but also institutional. In the twilight of her career, she created a tennis school in 1927 that would serve, a few years later, as a training center for the FFT. Died of a devastating leukemia in 1938, she displays, since 1997, her name at the top of the former "Court A" of Roland-Garros which can accommodate 10,000 spectators.

Simonne Mathieu, the resistance fighter

Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1908, Simonne Mathieu is the worthy heiress of Suzanne Lenglen. Best French player in the mid-1930s, she won Roland-Garros twice in 1938 and 1939 after six failures in the final. At the top of her game, Simonne Mathieu saw her momentum broken by the Second World War, which was about to tear Europe apart. The champion then put away her rackets and joined the Resistance alongside General de Gaulle in London where she formed a female corps of French volunteers. On May 8, 1945, the day of the Liberation, she marched through the streets of the capital as a captain in the French army.

Simonne Mathieu (left) with US player Helen Jacobs
Credit: AFP

As captain, she was also captain on the tennis courts at the end of the conflict, taking the lead of the women's France team from 1949 to 1960. Also president of the women's commission of the French Tennis Federation, she imposed herself in the world of the little yellow ball thanks to an assertive character, forged in the forces of the Resistance. Simonne Mathieu died in Chatou in the Yvelines on January 7, 1980 and gave her name to the third most capable court of Roland-Garros, which replaced Court No. 1 in 2019.